Saturday, November 26, 2011

You might have noticed that I have a new page in the sidebar of the blog called “recommended resources”. This page lists websites that aren’t dedicated to ASMR, or don’t intentionally have anything to do with said phenomenon, but experiencers commonly list these sites as ones they use. Even YouTube falls under this category, if you think about it, despite having many, many channels, playlists, and videos on it that are dedicated to ASMR.

One of these resources is Librivox. Librivox is a website which contains a massive catalogue of audio books. People (who are often writers, bloggers, or actors in some capacity) volunteer to record their voices as they read chapters of books, recent and ancient. These recordings are then uploaded to the website and can be downloaded in several formats including MP3 and OGG, as well as different bit rates (higher is better).

I went and downloaded the entire section of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I posted a while back on my Facebook page that I had read the eBook. The first few chapters were immensely captivating. I’ve watched the rather magnificent film of the same name recently, too, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Gary Oldman (who was essentially the Johnny Depp of his day, in my mind).

So after downloading the files (I opted for OGG – I seem to recall reading that they are more compressed than MP3 and of higher quality), I went about playing the files in WinAmp. I instantly cycled through all 27 chapters to see if any of the authors had “the voice”. Most of them made me shrill in disgust, but all ready a few chapters in and I came across some I liked. It made it that much more pleasurable to listen to – of course I didn’t retain that much information seeing as I was “blissing” the entire time.

Some of the notable authors in this respect who have worked on other projects on Librivox include Laura Fox, and Peter Yearsly, among others.

The recordings available on the website are in the public domain (this mainly applies to the USA), but in some countries or jurisdictions the copyright is still active, so it wouldn’t be wise to download it in cases like this.

Anyway, be sure to check it out and you might find a book you like that you’d just love to hear in audio form. It might even be a good idea to listen to the recordings and read the book (whether physical or digital) at the same time. This is a useful tactic I employ when it comes to studying – using more than one sense. Might be useful if you’re studying Moby Dick for school.

Monday, November 14, 2011

You may or may not have noticed that I was missing from the Facebook group for about 7 or 8 days. I had issues logging in to my account, and had to provide the Facebook team with proof that I owned said account so I could get back in. Dramas; you wouldn’t believe it.

I still oversaw all other areas of the network though, like the forums; Twitter; YouTube; this blog, etc.

Anyway, I managed to regain access to my account, and I had quite a bit of catching up to do. Discussions; links to trigger videos that had to be added to playlists. 8 Days of that. It was a lot. I happened to notice that while I was absent, the group hit 2000 users! The last time I checked we were at 1875 – 1900 (I might be wrong). So there was quite an increase in one week!

Thanks to everyone who has joined, and we look forward to the numbers of people who will continue to stream in every week. The community certainly is getting more involved just recently with creative looking logos for the community being designed and uploaded to the group, and discussions posted revolving around logos and the group itself; the direction it might take. I’ll likely post about this and hopefully gain permission to post a couple of designs on the blog just to demonstrate the right-hemisphere powered brains of the people on the group!

Otherwise if you’re a member, head over the group and check under the pictures tab to see everything that’s ever been posted on the wall, including the designs I speak of.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I’ve been a fan of Monty Python for years. I don’t quite know why, but there it is. When I was younger I would watch the original series with my father and brothers.

Back then it was funny to me because I was a child and couldn’t appreciate the satire taking place. I was more interested in the animations by Terry Gilliam, if anything.

But still, over the years, I persisted in watching the series – hiring every Python DVD I could get a hold of at the video store. And when that wasn’t enough, I managed to borrow some behind-the-scenes type DVDs – each focusing on a particular Python (my favourite of all time is John Cleese, without a doubt).

Still needing my hunger satiated, I then turned to the Python films that were made in the 70’s and 80’s. The Meaning of Life, which was made in 1983, is quite common to come by, and I’ve watched it several times over the years. Monty Python And The Holy Grail and Life Of Brian were harder for me to catch – until just the other day. I loaned a whole lot of DVDs from a friend, and I went about flicking through the collection. I stumbled upon not only Holy Grail, but also Life Of Brian. I then proceeded to watch them both over the weekend.

I’d rarely, if ever, gotten any tingles from watching Monty Python. But these two films actually changed all that. There was a particular scene in Holy Grail, where Michael Palin stumbles in to a castle, which is inhabited by dozens of young blonde and brunette women. It was here when he conversed with the two twins – who had some rather amusing, but lewd names – that I, for probably the first time, got buzzing during a Python film or skit of any kind.

Life of Brian was even better, really, in more ways than one. Firstly, in my mind it probably possessed the most coherent and mature of plots in any Python film. This could likely be attributed largely due to the fact that it was based on events in the Bible. For that reason it wasn’t as silly and ludicrous as a lot of other Python skits, which did go on a bit, to be honest.

There was a scene here where, Michael Palin (once again – perhaps a trend developing) is a Roman who is ushering a horde of individuals off to the hilltop for crucifixions. It’s when he asks: “Crucifixion? Good.”

This is where I just started replaying that scene over and over again. He was so attentive, and perhaps even kind; understanding – a complete turnaround to what you’d expect from a man in such a position.

In addition to this, there’s a section accessed from the main menu, where you can listen to radio adverts that were broadcast on the BBC years ago. Listening to these gave me a hit or two as well – especially the man who says “watch Monty Python’s Life of Brian…”.

Site Updates

These are just mini-updates that I was too lazy or busy to make a post for. They also list changes or additions that have been made to the blog, for interest's sake and to follow how the blog is developing.